Materializations

Lingams are egg-like objects representing the mystery of cosmic creation. On special
occasions witnessed by thousands of people Sai Baba has interrupted his own talking to
`give birth' through his mouth to one or more lingams.

78 - Sandweiss' Description of a Lingam Birth:

At about 8 o'clock Mahashivarathri evening, while Baba was giving a discourse in the
Poornachandra Auditorium, suddenly he began to choke and weave back and forth as if in
pain. To see our great Lord in the throes of what are, in fact, `birth' pains brought me
to tears. To me this incredible act represents a sacrifice, the holiest gift of selfless
love, through which the Lord personally beckons us to merge with him. Through the love
that wells up in our hearts, as our hearts reach out to the supreme master, one
experiences the yearning for, and the bliss of merging.

Some say the lingam is formed out of unconditional love in the region of Baba's
spiritual heart. The birth itself is very physical as well as ethereal. The lingam is
brought up the esophagus and delivered through the mouth in a divine paroxysm- much like
the birth spasm accompanying a corporeal birth. I don't know why I should be sad, because
this sacrifice is so glorious serving to make the devotee more firmly resolved to
surrender more and more of himself to God. Nevertheless, to see Baba in this state was
uncomfortable for me. He rocked back and forth, then swallowed some water. Suddenly, in a
convulsive burst, a glistening, crystal-clear lingam, perfectly spherical and almost three
inches in diameter, erupted from his mouth into his hand. In this supremely holy moment,
the Lord allowed his devotees to witness the mystery of the creation of the universe.

Then Sai Baba spoke and Dr. Bhagavantam translated his words:

`The lingam which has just been generated is called the Prutree Lingam. The five
elemental substances which constitute the creation of the world are present in this
Prutree Lingam. In the past, lingams have been named according to the various attributes
which they contained. This Prutree Lingam, signifying the entire creation, holds within it
the basis of all creation.'

Too much mystery for me to comprehend, I could nevertheless sense the holiness of the
moment.

S. Sandweiss, Spirit And Mind, pp. 170-171.

79 - Hislop's Description:

The lingam has been seen by the writer a number of times. On the occasion of one
Mahasivarathi night, I was sitting quite close to Baba. When the moment came, I saw a
flash of gold come from his mouth and saw the lingam caught in the silk handkerchief held
by his hands. It was of gold. How an object that size came up Sri Baba's throat cannot be
explained.

John Hislop, My Baba & I, p. 18

80 - Kasturi's Description:

Siva-ratri, the Night of the Siva, is also an equally important festival. Since 1950,
Siva-ratri has been celebrated at Puttaparthi, and each year since the declaration of the
manifestation, Sivalingams have materialized within His body. Baba has said He often finds
it very difficult to postpone or prevent the formations of lingams within Him. In the
evening Baba gives Darshan during prayers, and after an hour or so, He begins His
discourses. Very often he is interrupted by spasmodic struggles in the stomach. He
continues with the speech until the region of the struggle changes to the upper part of
the chest and the neck. He seems to be undergoing some kind of physical tension, and
suddenly, to the joyous wonder of all, lingams fall from His Mouth....They are about an
inch and a half in height...They are then generally placed on the image of Sai Baba of
Shirdi, and after the celebrations end, are given by Baba to devotees to be worshipped
according to instruction...This producing of the lingams is indeed a unique and mysterious
manifestation of the Divine Will.

Kasturi, Sai Baba, Vol. 1 American Edition,1969, pp. 108-109.

Sai Baba states that the lingams form within him. Sai Baba devotees, as is evident
above, hold the production of the lingam to be a `birth', `generation', or
`materialization' which is inexplicable. However, Baba devotees have not even begun to
apply the scientific literature to their question. Houdini in Miracle Mongers and Their
Methods, Chari, in "Regurgitation, Mediumship and Yoga", and others have
presented many examples of individuals who have publicly performed similar feats. It has
been clearly established that individuals can voluntarily control the regurgitation
response. In fact yogis teach voluntary control of regurgitation as part of standard yoga
training, even for the lay practitioner. Here is an example from a widely available hatha
yoga textbook:

81 - Satchidananda's Instructions for Jala or Water Dhauti:

Technique: Drink four or five glasses of lukewarm water, preferably with a little salt
in it. After a few minutes, do rigorous Uddhiyana Banda [stomach lift]. Shake the
intestines well. Press the stomach with the hand and then vomit out the water. If the
water will not come out naturally, use the fingers to get it out.

The reader may not be terribly surprised to learn that regurgitation can be controlled
at will; but what about regurgitation of an object the size of an egg? Around the turn of
the century, when North American audiences were less squeamish than now, circus performers
regurgitated all kinds of large objects. Here is Houdini on how it is done:

82 - Houdini on Regurgitating Objects at Will

A number of years ago, in London, I watched several performances of one of these chaps
who swallowed a hatful of stones, nearly the size of hen's eggs, and then jumped up and
down, to make them rattle in his stomach. I could discover no fake in the performance, and
I finally gave him two and six for his secret, which was simple enough. He merely took a
dose of powerful physic [emetic--ed.] to clear himself of the stones, and then was ready
for the next performance.

During my engagement in 1895 with Welsh Bros. Circus I became quite well acquainted
with a [Japanese] of the San Kitchy Akimoto troupe and from him I learned the method of
swallowing quite large objects and bringing them up at will. For practice very small
potatoes are used at first, to guard against accident; and after one has mastered the art
of bringing these up, the size is increased gradually till objects as large as the throat
will receive can be swallowed and returned.

In order to produce an effect such as the production of the lingam, all that is
required is the swallowing of the lingam ahead of time, and its regurgitation at the
appropriate point in the ceremony. Note that the description of Sai Baba's swallowing of
water prior to the regurgitation, and the churning of the stomach muscles both correspond
to the standard hatha yoga technique described by Swami Satchidananda.

The reader interested in further information which bears on this might enjoy reading
the Chari article referred to above. In it Chari describes a scientifically studied street
performer who makes his living doing regurgitations. He is able to swallow as many as 10
live snakes at a time, and regurgitate them in a `reptilian ball with a diameter of about
5 inches' (Chari, op. cit., p. 168).

Sai Baba performed this lingam ceremony until 1976. Why did he stop? Here are three
explanations, not mutually exclusive, for why:

83 - Sandweiss's Explanation:

On the morning that ended Mahashivarathri, Baba said that he had to deliver sad news.
This would be the last time Mahashivarathri would be celebrated like this; the crowds were
becoming too unruly devotees were being injured in the commotion.

Sandweiss, Spirit And The Mind,p.171.

84 - Donald Taylor's Explanation:

The production of a crystal lingam from within himself is performed by so many other
holy men that Sai Baba announced in 1976 that he would discontinue the practice.

In addition to the reason given by Donald Taylor, the reader may also want to take note
of the factor that in 1976, Sai Baba was about to turn fifty. The regurgitation of the
lingam is a physically trying ceremony, and it is common sense to consider that Sai Baba
upon turning fifty may have also wished to relieve himself of the physical stresses of
performing this ceremony.

Parapsychologists often lament the fact that the people who come to their attention
because of their putative paranormal powers will not subject themselves to study and
experiment under rigorously controlled conditions. This is especially true of psychics who
are involved in a religion, as opposed to those who simply claim paranormal powers. Such
religious psychics often imply that it is in some way `sacrilegious' to subject these
gifts to scientific scrutiny. Of course, the parapsychologist does not wish to be accused
of this, and realises that further requests for controlled experiments might well cause a
rift with the psychic. The parapsychologist then might not be able to gather any further
evidence. The result is a dilemma: on the one hand the evidence gathered from anecdotes
and from uncontrolled observation is interesting enough to share in print with the public.
On the other hand, the parapsychologist does not wish to be accused of simple naivety for
endorsing a psychic on the basis of flimsy evidence.

Erlendur Haraldsson faced this dilemma in his study of the Indian `God-man', Sathya Sai
Baba. In his 1987 study, Miracles Are My Visiting Cards, subtitled, `An
Investigative Report On The Psychic Phenomena Associated With Sathya Sai Baba', Haraldsson
investigates several reports of Sai Baba appearing in two places at once, resurrecting
people from the dead, knowing things by telepathy, materialising objects, and displaying
other wondrous powers. He and Dr. Karlis Osis also witnessed on several occasions Sai Baba
supposedly materialising objects out of thin air. However, Haraldsson points out
throughout the book (pp. 25, 26, 31, 32, 49-51, 289) that Sai Baba repeatedly rebuffed his
requests for controlled scientific studies. Thus, Haraldsson ends up with a `on the one
hand..., but on the other ....' judgement about Sai Baba's psychic powers:

Experimental science has one way of approaching the truth; descriptive science another.
Our judicial systems have evolved interrogation and corroboration of witnesses,
investigating relevant contemporary documents and so on, as ways of accruing evidence...In
dealing with... well-known weaknesses of human testimony our courts rely primarily on
quantity of testimony or on the reliability of witnesses. This has been our approach.
Numerous followers and critics as well with extensive observations of Sai Baba, arrive at
a general consensus about the paranormality of the frequent appearance of objects in his
presence or on his body on certain occasions...Of course any vigilant skeptic will
certainly come up with the sleight of hand hypothesis. During a brief visit to Puttaparti
[the village with Sai Baba's main residence ed.] an amateur magician viewed Baba from a
distance as he produced vibuthi [holy ash, the `materialisation' of which is a staple of
Sai Baba's ed.] by a wave of his hand. Such a poor observation sufficed him to conclude
that Baba used sleight of hand, though another skillful amateur magician, Dr. Fanibunda,
with his plentiful experience of Baba considers this hypothesis absurd. In my view, such a
meagre, poor observation does not prove anything either way... This example shows how
easily one may come to quick superficial solutions pro or contra by a shallow weighing of
only a tiny portion of the available evidence. (pp. 290-1).

Haraldsson's advice not to jump to hasty conclusions is well taken, but we maintain
that it is possible to follow his courtroom analogy more rigorously. If this is done, it
is possible to arrive at a more definite conclusion than Haraldsson was able to do in this
work.

First of all, Haraldsson's many witnesses of materialisation of objects only testify as
to the general effects which the scientist wishes to explain. This is roughly equivalent
in the legal analogy to a multiplicity of witnesses confirming that at such and such a
time gunfire shots rang out, and somebody then fell to the ground dead, apparently of
gunshot wounds. If the question is whether the shots which killed the person came from the
East or the West, ballistic experts must be called in to examine the bullets, the location
of the wounds in the body, etc. In this case expert magicians, not amateurs, must be
brought in to examine the evidence.

Second, Haraldsson mentions using contemporary documents. The advantage of this, of
course, is that it alleviates to some extent the fallibility of memory. The best document
for the purpose of studying Sathya Sai Baba's claims would be a videotape of his
materialisations. A videotape has the advantage of being a direct record of the event
rather than a verbal description. And even more, a videotape can be examined using the
pause button, so that the hand positions can be studied in detail. In this way one can
obtain the best assessment of the situation possible given Sai Baba's steadfast refusal to
be tested under controlled magic-proof conditions.

Now, it just so happens that there is a videotape ready to hand, produced by Richard
Bock, a Sai Baba devotee residing in Los Angeles, until his recent death. The video is
called Christ In Kashmir, The Hidden Years, and has been circulating amongst Sai Baba
devotees and the curious for several years. It is commercially available through Sai Baba
centres and elsewhere. We obtained a copy of it through an Oregon distributor which makes
available a wide variety of religious articles, meditation aids, videos, and the like.
Haraldsson makes no reference to this tape in his book, nor does he give any information
which would enable the reader acquainted with sleight of hand technique to acquire any
film records of Sai Baba materialisations.

Also we should state our qualifications at this point: four of the five authors of this
paper (DB is the exception) are more than amateur magicians. One of the authors Leon
Mandrake has for 50 years been a professional magician, performing under the name
"Mandrake The Magician", and has exposed countless alleged psychics over the
years. Lou Crockett has performed professionally for years under the stage name `Taylor
Steele'. And both Lon Mandrake, and Velvet Mandrake have years of solid professional
performance experience in sleight of hand, and magic in general.

A careful examination of this videotape, using the `pause mode' feature reveals several
instances of by professional standards, very elementary sleight of hand routines used by
Sai Baba in producing his `materialisations'.

And the three-minute segment showing one of Sai Baba's most famous materialisations,
that of vibhuti from a supposedly empty upturned urn, and the causing of the vibhuti to
pour all over a statue, provides good evidence for the normal explanation as well.

In this paper, then, we present our analysis of those segments of the Richard Bock
videotape which show Sai Baba `materialising' objects or streams of vibhuti from the
`empty' upturned jug.

I.

Sai Baba has performed countless `materializations' of pieces of jewellery. The Indian
magician and Chairman of the Indian Committee for the Scientific Claims of the Paranormal,
B. Premanand has published a nine page list of pieces of gold jewellery and other precious
gems allegedly materialized by Sai Baba, representing only those pieces whose production
is on record in Sai devotee publications. (See B. Premanand, Satya Sai Baba and Gold
Control Act, pp. 24-32). There is no doubt that there is a good deal of gold changing
hands around Sai Baba (as well as other gems), and the question is, how is it produced?

As it happens, there are a number of examples of necklace and pendant materializations
in the Bock video, and it is possible for the reader familiar with the basic methods of
stage conjuring and sleight of hand to play the tape, stopping at the crucial moment in
`pause mode', and observe Sai Baba's techniques of `materialization' at work.

In the first materialization, of a necklace (at the 33 min. point in the tape) Sai Baba
enters holding his left arm with his right hand. This is a most odd walking position, but
it is extremely convenient if he happens to have the object to be `materialized' in the
palm of the right hand, and otherwise in danger of falling at the wrong time, being
spotted in the hand, or arousing questions about why his hand is fisted. In this case, the
finger positions during the materialization are fully consistent with sleight of hand
technique. However the thumb is on the wrong side of the camera, so it is best to review
the finger positions in describing `materializations' in which the thumb positions are
visible.

At the 38 minute point in the film a second necklace is produced. However, the editor
of the film has chosen to cut out the wave of the hand which usually precedes Sai Baba's
`materializations' and shows the necklace only after it has been produced. Given the
results of an analysis of the hand waves in other `materializations' in which the thumb
activity is visible, one cannot help but wonder why the editor of the film chose to
eliminate the hand wave in this case!

The third `materialization' of a small object occurs at the 44-minute point in the
film. Sai Baba produces a necklace with a little circling of the hand. The pause mode
analysis of this circling of the hand, however, shows definite evidence that Sai Baba has
`thumb palmed' the necklace. The thumb is held tightly against the palm of the hand in a
manner whose significance will not be lost on anyone familiar with the art of the
magician. The fingers are relatively free, as is to be expected, and stretched out to
maximize the effect. After some circling, the fingers begin to fist, so that the
thumb-palmed object may be held in a finger palm briefly. Now, for the first time, the
thumb is seen to be free from the side of the palm, which confirms that a transfer from
thumb palm to finger palm has taken place. The hand with fingers curled now turns upright,
and the edge of the object begins to be visible. Of particular significance is the fact
that the thumb begins to push the object forward. The necklace had been gathered in a
bunch in order to palmable effectively, and so it appears as though a dab of glue or small
thread might have been used to keep the necklace bunched up. The pressuring motions of the
thumb not only push the object down onto the fingers, but also ensure the breaking of the
thread if it has not been broken by the handling. The thumb having accomplished its task,
we then see Sai Baba flick the necklace open. The `miraculous' production is complete, and
a smiling Sai Baba presents his gift.

The fourth object produced is a ring, also at the 44 minute point. The editing and
camera angles make it difficult to see the relevant aspects of this event. However, it is
clear that ample opportunity was available for a transfer of the object finger-clipped in
the left hand to be dropped into the right hand, which `takes the load' just prior to the
production of the ring.

The fifth small object materialization on the film occurs at the 45 minute point. Here,
once again, we have direct and clear evidence of elementary, if not clumsy, sleight of
hand. The details are functionally identical with those of the third materialization: the
thumb is not free until the object has been transferred. However, in this materialization,
the thumb, apparently, is unable to work the object free from its bunched up condition.
This explains why Baba's left hand comes over to the rescue, working the chain free. When
it is free, Baba holds the chain with his two hands, and offers it.

It is further instructive to notice the little kinks in the chain when it is being
presented, confirming that it had been kept in a bunched up condition for some time, and
was not freshly materialized in an unkinked condition as would be expected for a true
materialization.

Finally it is instructive to observe that Sai Baba's right hand is open and visible at
close range when he presents the chain. The hand then disappears and reappears shortly
afterwards, but held fisted. After this, the right hand `materializes' vibhuti. Thus the
vibhuti has been picked up (by one of a variety of well known methods) just prior to its
return in closed or fisted position.

There is one last materialization on the tape worth study. At the 44 and a half minute
point, Sai Baba, with his back to the camera, produces a slightly larger than palm size
object, a necklace chain with a crescent shaped pendant at the bottom. Watching the film
at normal speed one's response is that the angle at which the film has been taken
effectively prevents one from witnessing the `materialization' as it would have appeared
to its intended audience. Nonetheless, pause mode analysis is revealing. What we see is
Sai Baba twisting his body position so that his left hand is for the briefest moment held
behind his back, and so that his right hand which is making two large circles in the air
is enabled to come closer to the edge of the wall at the left of Sai Baba than it would
otherwise have been able to do. The sequence reveals that at the point of the circling,
Sai Baba is abutted adjacent to a window ledge. This area and the window ledge itself
provide an ideal place for the pendant to have been concealed. Three or four possibilities
immediately come to mind, all of them obvious, no doubt, to people familiar with the art
of conjuring. All that is required is that Sai Baba get his right hand over to the window
ledge in an apparently smooth and natural way, and the quick body shift, which is revealed
clearly only in slowing down the video, would accomplish just that.

II.

The `vibhuti abheshekam' is an annual ritual performed by Sai Baba. An urn is suspended
upside down, held by an assistant. Sai Baba places his hand in the urn, and vibhuti, ie.,
holy ash, streams down from it onto a venerated religious statue, in apparently larger
quantities than the urn can hold or so the devotees claim. The holy ash falls out of the
urn only when Sai Baba's hand is in the urn; it stops when Sai Baba takes his hand out, or
when he switches hands in the urn. At the beginning, Sai Baba's hand is barely into the
jug, and he gently twirls his hand; but as the ceremony progresses, his hand goes farther
into the jug, and his hand movements become more and more agitated.

The reader may well be entertained by learning to perform the `miracle' of producing
holy ash from an `empty' jug. To do this, one need not experiment with such a large jug as
is used in this ceremony. Familiarity with material that has the consistency of vibhuti
will show how Sai Baba or anyone, for that matter can perform this ritual.

Vibhuti may be obtained from many Hindu temples and/or Sai Baba groups. Talcum powder
available in any drug store has the same consistency for the purposes of demonstrating how
this miracle may be done. Take about 100 ml of vibhuti or talcum powder and mix with just
enough water to produce a paste. (Add the water bit by bit to ensure that it doesn't get
too wet.) Fill one or two sockets of a muffin sheet with the paste. Place the muffin sheet
in the oven and bake for an hour and a half to two hours at a medium or medium-low heat,
or until the water is gone and the vibhuti paste has become a vibhuti (or talcum) cake.
Allow it to cool. When the cake has cooled, you will find that you can hold the muffin
sheet upside down and no vibhuti powder will be released. Someone who cannot see under the
upside down sheet will conclude that it is empty. Now lightly brush the vibhuti cake with
your finger while the sheet is upside down. Lo and behold! A stream of ash is produced.
Now remove your hand. Lo and behold! The flow of ash has ceased. Now gently twirl again.
Miracle upon miracle the flow of ash starts up again! You are a miracle worker, and have
just performed the miracle of vibhuti abishekam in miniature.

An analysis of Bock's videotape supports the hypothesis that the vibhuti is in the jug
from the start and that it is either all in cake form, stuck onto the sides of the jug, or
some of it is in cake form, and some of it is in powder form in `compartments' released by
Baba in the course of the performance. This is the crucial point of what we mentioned
earlier, that Sai Baba's hand is not far into the jug at the beginning of the ceremony but
by the end his hand is placed very high up into the jug. This suggests that at the
beginning of the performance he is scraping off the caked vibhuti around the lip, and as
the performance proceeds, he has to reach farther into the jug to scrape off that which is
farther up the sides and on the jug-bottom. The shape of the jug is such as to catch loose
vibhuti even when upside down so that almost none will fall out when Baba's hand is
removed.

Also a pause mode inspection of the falling stream reveals what appear to be larger
chunks of vibhuti on one or two occasions, further suggesting that some of the vibhuti is
in cake form in the jug, and is made to powder by the touch of Baba's hand.

Finally, experimentation with material of this consistency and the size of the jug in
the film will establish beyond any doubt that a little vibhuti goes a long way and that
the jug will easily contain the amount of vibhuti seen to be produced in the film record.

Of course, the question arises why the vibhuti is not noticed at the beginning of the
ceremony. There are several simple answers. The faithful audience believes it has been
shown an empty jug as soon as the jug has been held upside down and nothing comes out.
(See, for example, the devotee's account in Haraldsson's book, p. 116: "There would
be an empty vessel...Swami...would just put his hand into the upturned vessel...The
vibhuti would start pouring out".) The lip is small relative to the rest of the jug,
and so as long as nobody has a chance to shine a flashlight down it, it will be undetected
especially in the context of a moving religious ceremony. Those who hold the jug might be
fooled by the construction of the jug into thinking that it is heavier than it is.
Alternatively, and far more likely, given human nature and given some of the remarks made
by interviewees of Haraldsson, those close to Sai Baba know full well that there is
vibhuti in the jug at the outset, and the `miracle' for them, if they think there is any
at all, consists only in the amount produced. (See ibid. page 226.)

Our conclusion, then, is that there are a great many ways of doing the vibhuti
abhishekam ceremony with few or even no assistants helping. The proffered miraculous
explanation of the Sai Baba organisation is the least plausible of them.

III.

We have presented clear evidence of conjuring from the Sai Baba organisation's own
evidence in Part I, and a natural explanation consistent with the visual evidence in Part
II. We are also confident that more evidence for our conclusions would be forthcoming if
we had a chance to examine the part of the original film or video left on the cutting room
floor.

What does this evidence say about Sai Baba's putative paranormal feats in general, and
the question whether he has any genuine powers? Must we rest content with Haraldsson's
`wait-and see' attitude? We think not. By his own criterion, that of the analogy to
evidence satisfactory in a court of law, we have examined the best evidence for Sai Baba's
miracles that is available. At worst (the evidence from Part I) it is damning, and at best
(a charitable interpretation of Part II) it is inconclusive. Given (1) no reliable
evidence inconsistent with the sleight of hand hypothesis, (2) Sai Baba's steadfast
refusal to be tested by scientists knowledgeable in magical tricks, and (3) direct
evidence of frequent use of sleight of hand by Sai Baba in videotape material put out by
the Sai Baba devotees themselves, Sai Baba's extensive reliance on sleight of hand in the
materialization phenomena is established beyond reasonable doubt.

Haraldsson, in Miracles are My Visiting Cards (p. 213) summarizes his data relevant to
determining whether Sai Baba is using conjuring methods in his materialization, suggesting
that Sai Baba hasn't been exposed as using sleight of hand during the performance of a
ritual. Premanand, however, states that at least one such an incident occurred:

86 - Premanand's Report of a Public Exposure of Sai Baba Using Conjuring Methods:

In 1968 the god had to stop using thumbtip [a standard piece of magical apparatus --ed]
because when he came to Kerala one of us went to the stage and removed his thumb suddenly,
and people got so wild, thinking that our person had cut the finger, cut the thumb of the
god. The thumb was shown. People thought God lost a thumb. But God didn't. He lost only
the thumbtip. He stopped doing that, and now what he does is he keeps the ball [of holy
ash, or vibhuti ed.] between the thumb and the pointing finger, like this...

Haraldsson also places emphasis in his summary of the evidence (for example, p. 290-1,
quoted in 85 above) on the fact that Dr. Fanibunda, once an amateur magician, has
found no evidence of fraud in Sai Baba's materializations. The degree of reliability of
the checks made by Fanibunda can be gauged however, by the check made by Fanibunda of the
Cowan resurrection story. The reader may wish to compare Fanibunda's account with
16 26 below. Here is his presentation of the Cowan resurrection events:

87 - E. Fanibunda's Account of the Cowan Story:

Apart from listening to Divine discussion by Baba and attending other functions, the
author witnessed a most remarkable incident which proved to him that Baba's omnipotence
embraced not only the manifestation and control of the physical universe but also the very
basis of existence, that is Life itself. Baba revived a dead man approximately five hours
after he was dead. In brief, this is what happened. In the early hours of the morning of
25th December 1971, Walter Cowan an elderly American gentleman who was a devotee of Baba,
died in the Connemara Hotel after a short illness of pneumonia. He was shifted to the
hospital in Madras where the attending doctor certified him dead on arrival. After
stuffing his ears and nostrils with cotton wool, the hospital authorities had kept his
body in a separate room. At about 10 am. that day, Baba visited the Hospital and gave
Walter Cowan back his life.

E. Fanibunda, "Vision of the Divine", as quoted in Indian
Skeptic No. 3 p. 31, July 1988.